Candy Capitol, born Clarice Gillis in Long Beach, California, grew up wanting to be a movie star. She trained for it: studying at the Actors Studio and the Pasadena Playhouse. But Hollywood doesn’t always open through the front door. Someone told her the real way in was to mingle and be seen. So she moved to Los Angeles, went out, and played the game.

In 1967, that led her to a party hosted by Dean Martin. Just another Hollywood night, until it wasn’t. Across the room was Alain Bernardin, founder of Crazy Horse Paris. He noticed her immediately and fell in love with her curly red hair. The offer came on the spot: Paris, Crazy Horse Paris. She said yes. And just like that, she became the first American showgirl to take that stage.

"We have the best of everything here. The best dancers, the most beautiful costumes, the most handsome waiters. The most beautiful girls from all over the world come to Paris to work at Crazy Horse Paris. Here is one who is American, our first American and she is so talented". Bernardin said the night of her debut.

She arrived in Paris at 22, barely speaking French, living in a hotel near the Latin Quarter and spending her evenings at the Alliance Française. The stage did the rest. Her work at Crazy Horse Paris quickly gave her visibility across Europe, even making history as the first woman to perform on TV. The show was “Night Club”, hosted by Karlheinz Hollmann. The broadcast was allowed because Crazy Horse aesthetic was recognized as art rather than erotica. 

But Candy didn’t start in Paris. Before all that, she was already working as a burlesque performer in the U.S. under the name Brandy Wilde, debuting in Cleveland in 1961 and touring cities like Texas, Las Vegas, and New York, eventually making a name for herself on the Sunset Strip. After her Crazy Horse Paris years, she kept stripping: Singapore, Munich, and back to the United States.

Today, she lives in Los Angeles, far from the stage, with two dogs, two cats, and a rescued desert tortoise.